The Tales of Arjun and Panchali

The Goodbye - Part 1

Arjun's POV :

It was almost the time of dawn. In a few minutes, she would actually get to see the sun rising if she stood plastered in front of her balcony, staring into the horizon, just like now. I was riding on my horse on my way to enter Indraprasth. I knew I wasn't going to get to see her for twelve long years now, so no I didn't avert my gaze when I spotted her there. Looking at her my breath hitched. How does she manage to look so ethereal? I was going to miss looking into those beautiful lotus shaped eyes of hers. Most of the times, that's how we communicated, without words, deciphering each other's thoughts just by one glance at each other. We both knew that we had some divine soul connection which was so special that it didn't matter to me that she was married to my brothers too. But it mattered to her. She had made it pretty evident on the day when we were going to decide her "fate" back at her own father's palace. How ironical is the fact that at the very palace which she ruled as a princess, and probably decided on other people's fates, she had to submit her fate in the hands of a couple of men who had no idea of the enormity of troubles she would have to face while being the wife of five men. I still remember how she had pulled me, "the greatest warrior of Aryavart", into a small chamber, without anybody noticing. After all, this was her territory and I was surprised that my soon to be wife, who is deemed to be the most beautiful woman on the planet, was also a skilled warrior. Even then I could only gaze into her mesmerizing orbs as she had covered the rest of her face to not give her identity away. In a hurry, she removed the cloth and spoke confidently, "Parth, you have immensely disappointed me by not speaking up while your elder brother was devising a plan to make me the wife of all five of you. You are the one who rightfully won me by striking the target with such perfection amongst all the warriors present there. But I'd be lying if I said that is when I was smitten by you. You see, Pitashree always wanted me to get married to you and hence devised a competition which would be a piece of cake for you, and I the cherry on the top!" That last sentence was filled with disgust. I knew she was no ordinary woman but was so glad to hear that she didn't want to conform to societal rules of deeming women to be mere "trophies" of a competition. She stepped forward while being inches apart from me and continued,"Parth, I wouldn't let my Pitashree decide whom I should get married to just because you defeated him. So, through my spies and with Sakha Shri Krishna's help, I set out to find you." When I heard that, I was shocked which must be pretty evident as she smirked looking at my expressions. I knitted my eyebrows which she noticed and began talking again. "Don't look so confused, you look very cute like that, and I don't want to lose my train of thoughts. As I said, I found you in the forests of Kampilya, while you were practising archery. To my dismay, I was spellbound after looking at your skills. I had come there to see you and dismiss you so that I could tell Pitashree how ridiculous I thought his plan was to entice you into this Swayamvar Competition and how I wasn't interested in marrying at all. I guess, destiny had planned something else for me. I was weaving a trap for you and I got caught into it. I got so caught by your skills that I started coming everyday to watch you practice. Gradually, I fell in love with you....."  

Yes, just like that she had confessed her love for me the very first time.  A massive realization struck me,  all along these years, I had grown tired of sharing her with my brothers! Of constantly being on the lookout for them. There were days when I just wanted to be close to her. To lie down on her lap and go on talking about our day. Unfortunately, I never had that liberty. Perhaps, that's when it hit hard that it DID matter to me that she was not exclusively mine! As soon as the thought crossed my mind, tears started flowing down from my eyes and at that very moment our eyes met. But why did this realization dawn on me just before when we were going to part our ways for a long, long time? Am I this big of a fool? I always felt that because we had a special connection, I was going to remain her priority forever. Was it my ego which stopped me from accepting the truth or was I just denying my feelings in order to not get hurt? And in the meanwhile, I kept hurting her. I kept being my stupid distant self while she clearly expressed her love for me time and again. But wasn't it too late now to profess my feelings and hurt her all the way more  at our departure. While trying to fulfill my princely duties, I was ignoring the responsibility of being her husband. Not even once did I think how she is going to feel about my twelve year penance even after knowing how much she loved me! I don't know what possessed me at that moment but I stepped down from the horse and started going straight towards her chamber. And no, it didn't matter if Jyesht Bhrata Yudhistir was going to be around her. Anyway, I am going to fulfill the penance. I need to meet her just once, this is my chance, perhaps my only chance.

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P.S : That was the end of first part, guys! Do let me know if you liked it or not. Thankyou :)